The council had voted to hire the Dykema Gossett law firm to review and report on whether Councilman Glenn Kivell had violated the city charter, ordinance or state law by failing to disclose his employment with Pullum Windows while voting to award a bid to the company for new windows at the South Lyon Police Department and the South Lyon Recreation Authority.

The report found there were seven misdemeanor violations by Kivell, but also found he had nothing to do with the contract itself and received no commission or other financial benefit from the contract. Kivell apologized for failing to report the conflict.

Councilwoman Mary Parisian commented that complaints about the monthly bill to retain city attorneys Johnson. Rosati, Schultz and Joppich — about $9,000 per month — were hypocritical in light of the $36,000 bill from Dykema Gossett.

Although the city's attorney's monthly bill wasn't on the agenda to be paid, Councilwoman Margaret Kurtzweil questioned items on the bill, including consultations between attorney Timothy Wilhelm and South Lyon Police Chief Lloyd Collins about dealing with unruly council meetings. She also questioned Wilhelm's review of the Dykema Gossett report.

As an attorney, Kurtzweil said she has a keen eye for research. "Mary (Parisian) isn't a licensed attorney — she needs to pass the bar," Kurtzweil said. "I scrutinized the Dykema Gossett bill and their report. The city has never seen a report like the one he did. It was unbiased and objective."

The report from Wilhelm didn't include an Attorney General's opinion, Kurtzweil said, although he had the opinion and it was included in the Dykema Gossett report.

"I wrote a stinging letter to Wilhelm. That was when I knew I could no longer rely on legal advice from Johnson Rosati. This report makes it clear that Dykema Gossett should be the city attorney," she said.

Councilman Joseph Ryzyi, who like Kurtzweil has been critical of Wilhelm, disagreed. "It's not hypocritical to complain about the city attorney bill with this larger bill pending. If the city attorney had done his job, we would not need to hire an outside attorney," he said. "The council as a group decided to take a look at this again and went with an outside firm that found seven misdemeanors."

At the council meeting when the Dykema Gossett report was presented, the council wasn't about to reach consensus about either sanctioning Kivell or seeking criminal prosecution of the misdemeanor. With Kivell abstaining, the council was divided 3 to 3 on each motion. No one took up Parisian's proposal that the council vote to suspend Kivell — something that Parisian asked to be placed on the next council agenda.

"Unless the council comes up with a solution, the taxpayers have been fleeced. The council didn't represent the taxpayers. There are different standards for people with friends on council," Kurtzweil said.

If prosecuted and convicted of a misdemeanor charge, under the charter Kivell would lose his council seat. His current term on the council ends this year.